Great Divide Samurai Rice Ale

I’ve been meeting a lot of new people here in Colorado. Tonight I went out for Thai food and a drink with two coworkers, both of which are pretty hilarious. One of them is from Thailand, working at the Y to try something new, and he is exceptionally humorous, so we get along well. We ended up discussing differences in beer drinking. Apparently, people drink their beer with ice. ICE. For shame.

Regardless, we had a pretty good time, and I stumbled upon a rice ale that is brewed in Denver. The Samurai Rice Ale was one of the two Great Divide brews that interested me. Lots of factors go into beer making, one of them being the malt. By changing the ingredients of the malt, which are usually different types of grains, you get a different beer. The more of one ingredient will change the flavor, like wheat, rice, and barley. A famous rice beer is Budweiser, if that helps.

The Great Divide Samurai is another example of a light, drinkable beer that I had no immediate problem with except for when I drink it. The Samurai has a beautiful golden color and a cheerful white head and carries a nice little scent of grass and earth. And this beer is subtly sweet.

But not honey sweet or roasted nut sweet.

Like powered sugar sweet.

Like beer flavored cotton candy.

While not overpowering or incredibly dominate, it is something that adds to the experience. There is a light bitter flavor and that strange, fruity flavor, similar to a wheat beer, but not as in-your-face strong. However, with all the subtleties, this beer does have quite a flavor, but it’s hard to really break out ahead when all you can say about it is, “It’s a pretty good light beer.” And it is pretty good, if that’s something you are looking for.